Improvement in ferry-bridges



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIoE.

CARROLL J. ATKINS, on LOUISIANA, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN FERRY-BRIDGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,911, dated August19, 1873; application filed July 19, 1873.

incline in the bow of the boat to run under the projecting end of thebridge and raise it to the level of the boat-deck, whether the water behigh or low. My inventionalso consists of large V-shaped notches in theedge of the platform or bridge, and corresponding pro jections on theboat to enter them, and thus bring the boat and bridge into alignment.This part is more particularly designed for railroad ferry boats andbridges, to insure the alignment of the tracks for running the cars fromone to the other.

Figure 1 is aplan View of a ferry boat and bridge arranged according tomy invention, and Fig. 2 is a side elevation.

A represents the movable bridge or platform. It is hinged at B to thepermanent structure 0, which is sloped from the joint B to the frontend, as shown at D, sufficiently to I allow the bridge to swing down atthe front as much as needed to be level with the boat at low water. E isthe boat, and F the incline on the bow for running under the front edgeof the bridge and raising it up to the level of the boats deck when thewater is above lowwater mark. This incline will be extended sufficientlyto run under the bridge at low water. By this arrangement the floats,weighted chains, pulleys, levers, and other contrivances,

and the attendance now employed to regulate bow of a ferry-boat with abridge, A, arranged to swing down at the front edge as low as the deckof the boat at low water, substantially as specified.

2. The combination of projections H on the boat, and counterpart notchesG on the bridge, to align the rails on the boat and the bridgeautomatically when they come together, substantially as specified.

CARROLL J. ATKINS.

Witnesses:

LEWIS W. ENGLISH, JOHN W. BLADES.

